Posted inAlberta Politics

Alberta’s UCP deploys the red tape weapon: an example from the War on Education

Never let it be said Alberta’s United Conservative Party Government hates red tape. On the contrary, Premier Jason Kenney’s Government loves the stuff – at least if you define red tape as most dictionaries do, to wit, excessive bureaucratic rules that make it more difficult to get stuff done. Notwithstanding the UCP’s creation of a […]

Posted inBestsellers

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett tops independent Edmonton booksellers’ bestseller list

Whoops! This was the list for the top 10 fiction, non-fiction and poetry titles sold by independent booksellers in Edmonton during the week ended Sunday, Jan. 12, 2020. Please consider this a correction. Next week, I’ll go back to using the province-wide lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and which include […]

Posted inCanadian Politics

Stephen Harper and Preston Manning, joined at the hip by history and not particularly liking it, make changes

On Wednesday, former prime minister Stephen Harper abruptly quit the Conservative Party of Canada’s fund-raising board, supposedly to give himself time to prevent Jean Charest from becoming leader of Canada’s Conservatives or prime minister of Canada. Yesterday, we learned that Preston Manning would quit his eponymous market-fundamentalist call centre in Calgary, and what’s more the […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

Brace yourselves, Alberta, Premier Kenney’s promising us another spring of renewal!

Good Lord, can Alberta survive another spring of renewal like the last one? Another springtime of renewal — that’s what Government House Leader Jason Nixon and the United Conservative Party’s meme machine were promising yesterday with the announcement the Alberta Legislature well get back to business on Feb. 25. “At only 12% of the way […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

S.O.S. for secession? Only about 150 make it to frigid Wexit rally at Alberta Legislature Building

Judging from the underwhelming turnout at its “S.O.S.” rally in Edmonton yesterday, Alberta’s minuscule Wexit faction might want to reconsider its demand for a separation referendum right now. Leastways, Wexit supporters should probably rethink the idea if the “S.O.S.” was supposed to stand for “Separation, the Only Solution,” as the group led by former Mountie […]

Posted inBestsellers

Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, old but still good, tops independent booksellers’ Alberta fiction bestsellers list

Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Jan. 5, 2020. The lists are compiled by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta, and include sales at Audreys Books in Edmonton and Glass Bookshop in Edmonton. ALBERTA FICTION BESTSELLERS 1. The […]

Posted inCanadian Politics

Canadians want answers about tragic Iran air crash, but Canada has little influence with no embassy in Tehran

In the wake of yesterday’s air tragedy in Iran that took the lives of at least 63 Canadians, nearly half of them from Edmonton, and many others bound for Canada, all Canadians want and deserve answers to what caused Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS 752 to crash. Likewise, it is reasonable for Canadians to want […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

There’s nothing like the United Nations putting its oar in to make the locals go loco in Alberta!

If we ever do form the Western Wepublic of Wexit out here in Wild Rose Country, I guess we won’t be able to join the United Nations. Too triggering. There’s just something about the UN putting its oar into our affairs that sends Alberta politicians over the edge. Guilty conscience? Consider Alberta Energy Minister Sonya […]

Posted inAlberta Politics

NDP assails Alberta Energy War Room for ‘gross incompetence’ — but is that such a bad thing?

Having swallowed much of the United Conservative Party’s unlikely conspiracy theory about what supposedly ails the Alberta oilpatch during its term in office makes it harder for the NDP to convincingly criticize the Kenney Government’s $30-million-a-year “Energy War Room.” To give the Opposition its due, though, yesterday they tried. After three weeks of watching excruciating […]